I’m eternally grateful for a beautiful breastfeeding journey with my children. It’s something I would never give up or change. But after three years of breastfeeding my oldest (with a hiatus where I *thought* I’d weaned, interrupted by seeing baby sister nurse), I am finally ready to wean her. 

My girl loves mommy milk. Her little sister is going to be easier to wean, I think, but Millie was particularly attached and would happily keep it up. Although we had managed to wean to only nap and bedtime weeks ago, it finally became too much for me to keep up with, so I did some research, chose some good weaning books and made it happen. 

The first time I tried weaning was super rough. My wonderful mother-in-law and husband helped me keep Millie busy and occupied while we cold turkey stopped milk, and while it worked (for a while!), there were many many tears and I didn’t feel like it was the end of our breastfeeding journey quite yet. So it was important for me to make a better experience this time around!

The two books we used were My Milk Will Go, Our Love Will Grow, and Booby Moon. My Milk Will Go, Our Love Will Grow was a wonderful story for reassuring Millie that life will go on after weaning. Mama still loves her. It’s just time to move on to another stage of life. The prose is lyrical and the story is very sweet, welcoming children to ask questions and rest securely in their mother’s love. I’m not a fan of the art style, but Millie likes it. 

Booby Moon was more useful to us. It tells children that “booby milk” is a gift the moon gives to mothers to help babies grow big and strong. Then it talks about how when baby gets big enough, it’s time to give the booby milk back to the moon to nourish other babies. It also includes a parent’s guide to weaning. Although it uses a birthday as this milestone event, I easily switched the words to milk-day.

I told Millie that at the next full moon, we would give her share of mommy milk to the moon for new babies (helpfully, my sister is expecting a baby soon!) I read both of our weaning books pretty frequently over the course of a few weeks to get her used to the concept of weaning. When it was finally milk day, we took Millie out to pick a cake, candles and a brand new set of dinnerware to celebrate being a big girl now. Then we invited two of her friends over for the party!

After dinner, we sang Happy Milk-Day and Millie blew out candles. We gave her a new jacket, a stuffy to cuddle to sleep with, a new water bottle, some new books to read and a little piano. After playing with her friends for a while, the moon finally rose high enough for our milk ceremony. 

Although Booby Moon suggests releasing a glow-in-the-dark helium balloon to the moon to symbolize mommy milk leaving, Joseph had the brilliant idea to let Millie light a candle and blow it out, letting the smoke blow to the moon instead. 

Although Millie still has sad moments, I think the milk-day party helped make weaning into a celebratory milestone instead of a harsh transition. I’m thankful to have wonderful stories to make weaning more clear to my daughter as we celebrate growing up together!